About:

GameNets 2006: Workshop on Game Theory for Networks
in conjunction with
Valuetools 2006: First International Conference on Performance
Evaluation Methodologies and Tools (October 11-13, 2006)

Workshop Objective and Topics of Interest:

In the past decade, game theory has been applied to challenging problems in the performance analysis of communications and networks.

In computer networking, game theoretic models have been developed to better understand Internet pricing, flow and congestion control, peer-to-peer systems, and routing, among other issues. More recently, we have seen the application of game theory to wireless systems. Wireless networks are notoriously difficult to analyze using traditional mathematical models, due to the complexity of mobility and traffic models, coupled with the dynamic topology and the unpredictability of link quality. Game theory has recently shown promise in understanding numerous problems in wireless networks (power control, topology formation, trust management, etc.), as it can be used to model interactions between independent decision makers. This is of particular importance in environments such as mobile ad hoc networks, due to the absence of a centralized entity that has a full picture of the network conditions and can make decisions on behalf of individual nodes.

There is also increased interest in applying game theory to the study of other types of networks, including human interactions in social networks, molecular networks, neural and other cellular networks, social insect networks, etc. There are important commonalities among these types of networks and in models to describe and analyze their behavior.

This workshop will bring together researchers who are applying game theory to analyzing, designing, and assessing the performance of networks. The objective is to generate discussion of best practices in modeling as well as limitations of game theory as a performance assessment and design tool for networks. Both the application of game theory to networking problems and the development of new game-theoretic methodologies that can be applied in that context are of interest.

Scope:

Topics of interest include game-theoretic analysis and evaluation of: